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When it comes to providing consumers with easily accessible information about physician quality, a report out today gave most states grades of ‘D’ or ‘F,’ often because they compile data only about primary care doctors, not specialists...

As part of an effort to make healthcare pricing more transparent, the state is naming hospitals and listing their median charges and costs for 1,400 conditions and procedures from 2009 to 2011. In 2011, prices ranged from the $8 bill at Benedictine Hospital in Kingston, N.Y., for treating a case of gastritis (cost: $2), to a $2.8 million charge for a blood disorder case at University Hospital of Brooklyn that cost it $918,462...

The Obama administration said Friday that the enrollment records for roughly a quarter of all the people who signed up for health insurance on its website in October and November could contain errors, raising questions about whether those consumers would get coverage in time to pay for their medical care next month...

Although ambulances are often requested by a bystander or summoned by 911 dispatchers, they are almost always billed to the patient involved. And the charges, as well as insurance coverage, range widely, from zero to tens of thousands of dollars...

Rates of apparent substance use disorders among anesthesiology residents have recently been at their highest level since 1975, researchers said. Disciplinary records and other data sources on more than 44,000 individuals starting anesthesiology residencies from 1975 to 2009 identified 384 with evidence of substance use disorders during training, for an overall rate of 2.16 per 1,000 resident-years...

Dr. Billy Cohn and his mentor -- veteran heart surgeon Dr. O.H "Bud" Frazier -- are working to develop a long-term, artificial replacement for the failing human heart. Unlike existing short-term devices that emulate the beating organ, the new machine would propel blood through the body at a steady pace so that its recipients will have no heartbeat at all...

Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery restored normal regulation of the appetite hormone ghrelin, an analysis of the STAMPEDE trial found. In addition, bypass patients lost more belly fat and had improved insulin secretion compared with patients who had sleeve gastrectomy, even though their total weight loss was the same...

Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic began to suspect in 2012 that something might be wrong with a high-tech implant used to treat patients with advanced heart failure like former Vice President Dick Cheney. The HeartMate II is a left ventricular assist device, which contains a pump that continuously pushes blood through the heart...

Patients injured by a flawed hip implant sold by Johnson & Johnson have directed their anger at myriad places over the years. The regulatory system that allowed the product’s sale. The company that repeatedly denied problems with the device. Even the doctors who implanted the hips. Now, some patients have found a new target for their ire: the legal system and the lawyers they hired to sue Johnson & Johnson...

The director of the VA hospital in Augusta, Georgia, has publicly apologized for the deaths of three veterans at the facility that were caused by delays in care. The rare public apology from an official at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs was prompted by a CNN exclusive investigation on Tuesday that detailed the deaths at the Augusta facility, and also other deaths and delays at other VA hospitals...

Joshua Aferzon got his start in the medical industry at a very young age. He was just 16 when he developed his first patent. Aferzon then researching medical devices during his time as a biomedical engineering major at the University of Connecticut. Before even finishing school in 2011, he launched Orthozon Technologies and quickly released his first product, the Lumiere Retractor System...

How much practice would you want your brain surgeon to have? Probably a lot and the more specific that practice is to your particular brain, the better. Now, by combining models of brains made on 3D printers and images of simulated surgery, faculty at the University of Florida (UF) are making sure their surgeons get just this kind of training...

This year’s ESP Awards gave readers the difficult task of picking the winners from all of the great submissions received. From the entrants rose three Best of Show products. The winners were given the opportunity to talk more in-depth about their products, primarily the catalyst behind the product's creation and how they help help in the operating room...

The founders of SpotOn Surgical began to see a collision of trends in the operating room several years ago. Hospitals were successfully implementing programs to reduce supplier foot traffic in the operating room, while products and equipment used in surgery continued to increase in complexity. It seemed inevitable that remote support and improved aggregation of training tools would improve the situation...

The FDA wants label and packaging changes for certain topical antiseptic products to reduce the risk of infection. The agency said on Wednesday that it is evaluating "infrequent but continuing reports of infections resulting from antiseptic products labeled for preoperative or preinjection skin preparation..."